First full day teaching experience

I taught my first full day today :) I was able to create some review activites for today and tomorrow to do with the kids. We did a charades-type game to practice past tense verbs and wrote example sentences. I explained the directions very slowly and clearly but there were still several students that struggled because they have limited English comprehension. I found it beneficial to provide an example so they could see what to do as well as hear what to do. Understanding the directions in English is the most difficult challenge for the students to overcome. There are several students with curriculum adjustments and they need additional instruction time and more explanation. 

It is almost impossible to go around and individually explain it to each student. They really struggle with directions and following instructions. It is something I have noticed during my observations the past two weeks. I plan to work a lot on understanding instructions and following directions.  No matter what I say, how I say it, or how many times I say it, there is always two or more students with questions. They might ask a question that I just explained 5 seconds before. It seems quite bazaar. 

However, when I checked the notebooks, majority of the students did the exercise correctly so I was very happy about that J

The classroom management is very different that in the U.S. I am very fortunate to have a lot of previous classroom management experience so I am not completely overwhelmed with the chaos or multiple interruptions. The students don’t necessarily misbehave but they have a lot of energy and it seems common to make noise, talk with each other, etc. They dont necessarily know how to pay FULL attention to the teacher. I have learned so much about and feel comfortable with responsive classroom, PBIS and using responsive language but it doesn’t seem to be commonly used here. I am trying to introduce to the students about what it should “look like and sound like” when the teacher is talking. I think that is something that will work with them once they become more familiar with the terms. I am very excited to implement some strategies that I have learned in my training.

A problem I have noticed is that there is not much concern for transitions between activities. I have noticed that is the prime time for students to become distracted and more out of control. The constant interruptions or chatter does not necessarily bother me but it is definitely different. I am excited to work with the students more and use my strategies and techniques that I have learned from previous classroom experience in the states. My cooperating teacher is fabulous and extremely supportive and encouraging of my ideas and suggestions.

I am excited for another full day of teaching tomorrow and will have to see how my sentence sort activity goes ;) Wish me luck! It is definitely some very exciting teaching going on and there is never a dull moment. 

My favorite moment of the day:
A student was asking me how to say something in English but I did not know the word in Spanish. It is very difficult to translate for them when I dont know the word they want to know....but i'm learning! So I did not know what the student's quesiton was....they were trying to find other ways to describe or explain the word (this is beneficial to them becuase it will help them understand the vocabulary better). I still was not figuring out the word. Another student went to his backpack and pulled out the book "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" to show me what word they wanted......diary! I was so grateful and the kid was a genius :) I thought it was great! I often have to take out my dictionary to find a word for them and they LOVE that. It is so fun for them to make the connection that I am learning their language as well.